Connections
by BurntEmber
Summary: About reunions, anger, angst and fairy tales and what real love is capable of. Please Comment. I don't own V for Vendetta, or any of it's characters and I'm certainly not making money for my time. Enjoy. Please comment, as this is my first.
1. Chapter 1

**My sincere apologies to everyone for moving things around and I imagine the multiple emails to people who have favourited my story. I suddenly thought that putting the whole story on just one page might be better, but when I did it, when I removed everything else, I was really shocked at how long it actually was. So. It's all been changed back, and chapters 18 & 19 have been added. Enjoy.**

**CONNECTIONS**

**CHAPTER 1**

**EV**

When I watch the rain, it makes me remember... it makes me remember my past...my tears...times when I've been happy...times when I've been sad... even times where I was angry or scared. The rain reminds me of a time when I felt the waves of fear wash from my soul, and it makes me remember a face... a face I will never forget...

I lay on my bed, curled over a pile of mismatched pillows and watch the drops splash and patter against the glass. The water streaks across the dark window, splaying out in a pattern that reminds me of a spider's web, spun with gentle care. I half close my eyes, slipping into the moment and then I realize my mistake. So careful...so careful... not careful enough, and the feelings, the dream takes hold. I force my eyes open as I always do, in an effort to remind myself of what is...what has been... to avoid the sudden rush of sickness that invades my senses. How quickly it comes...and how quickly I am reduced to a miserable shaking mess. How little it takes to erase the supposed healing passage of time. Don't remember Evey... don't remember his face, so unchanged in your memory...don't let it come...  
I don't want to remember what once was mine...freely given…and lost…in the same moment. No!

I roll onto my back, eyes searching for focus, the waves crashing against the walls I've worked so long to build, so tirelessly...my heart aching, screaming against the cascade and my voice rising to meet it. I scream, matching the volume in my head and suddenly I simply can't lie still, pulling my body up from the bed. With a rush to my steps, a shake to my fingers and a drive, I grab my coat roughly. A jarring shove of my feet into my shoes and I rush to the door of my tiny flat, hurling it open without thinking.. The jostle and responsive rattle of the mirror at it's back giving me pause, the sound a threat to me, shouting it will break, just as I was inside.  
With a shaky hand, I take a moment... closing the door enough to see my reflection. For what seems like an eternity I look at myself... into myself...questions, pain, all burrowing through the fabric of my mind.

"What am I doing..."... "What happened to me that I feel so helpless now..."... "Why didn't he stay..."

And that was it... the single question that hurt so deeply it felt like fire burning a hole in the depths of my heart... "WHY"...my hand slid down the door, making it move, and with it, my focus shifts. Blinking, I grab my keys, nails scraping on the wood of the table, and flee the now all too small surroundings, the door slamming behind me... a second later, I hear the skid and shatter of glass on the floor. It doesn't matter...

I couldn't breathe, my hand touching the wall, fingers splaying on it for support as I made my way down the hall. This was foolish... I knew it... I could hear some scolding voice telling me that to fall apart is of no use...it doesn't change a thing... why waste the time. But at the same time, I have to force my lungs to take air and they expanded painfully, fighting back. I looked ahead of me, the clock on the far wall above the stairs. 7:40... 20 to the hour... and I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment. Another mistake as the reason behind this came flooding to memory and to view, and I snap my eyes open in reflex. I run now... down the hall… down the stairs...to the street…an elderly woman approaching staring at me as I race across the street in front of her, mouth agape, and her umbrella rises to gawk at me better. Damn it.

I didn't know where I was going...the rain already soaking through my coat to my clothes to the skin underneath. It streaks down my still shaved scalp; I feel it running behind my ears, clinging to whatever skin it touches. My hands ball into fists and I just keep running. Anything to not have to think. I run. I run...and I run until my limbs begin to ache... my lungs burning with the effort to keep up with the ragged breathing…and as I slow, I move to a nearby fence, slumping against it, fingers curling into the wire mesh. My hand goes to my throat and I clutch it, nails scraping against the skin as if to open it up, closing my eyes again, throat filling itself with a core shuddering sob...my body shaking in the wake, legs no longer able to hold their ground, and I sink to the water pelted ground. The water soaks up my pants like a sponge but I don't notice. In my ears all I can hear is the rain, pounding to the earth all around me, and the beat of my own heart in my ears. All I can do it rock, hugging my middle with my arms, soothing away the burst of emotions. It takes a few long...tortured moments for me to lift my head...suddenly conscious of my surroundings and looking around.

I had run into a park which at the moment seemed deserted, climbing structures and swing sets abandoned...and off in the distance I could hear the sound of cars swishing down the streets, the occasional honk of an offending horn and again the rain... the sound on the metal rooftops of the houses nearby, almost like a melody...

Always the rain... will it always be so..? A difficult memory, but soothing... the calm settling over me as I remember it's persistence...it's value...and as the rage of the emotions had hit...in direct contrast, they seemed to slip away. I felt a rushing flood fall and settle through me, like a wave to a rock and my lips mouthed the words...

"This is not all there is... this will not break me..." closing my eyes again, and committed to that memory and to what it had once done, and would do for me now.

And then I was calm...placing my hand on the ground, water immersing it as I pushed to my feet, fingertips sliding from the ground and upwards with the rest of me. At my head, I turned my face to the sky, raining meeting me for a second time...and I allowed it to wash over me... my eyes and lips...abandoning control…tears flowing freely and feeling them being washed away by that beautiful rain...as his fingertips had...so many months ago...

"Oh V..." the ache in those words resigned...but I spoke to him, through the rain..."In what state did you leave me...surely this isn't the way things are meant to be..."

I closed my eyes, bringing back his face in my memory... and in my heart I kissed him again... and again…let him go... as I was sure I would a dozen times more... brought my chin down, slid my hands into the pockets of my coat and turned...beginning my slow...contemplative walk back to my flat... my eyes on the ground in front of me.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**V**

From the moment the door slammed behind her as she fled her flat, he was behind her. He'd caught a glimpse of her from the alleyway and alarm bells went off in his mind causing his body to jolt, darting after her, matching her pace. Was something, someone chasing her? What was wrong?

He silently reflected on his early departure from the underground. The feeling that the walls of his home were caving in on him and which then prompted him to seek out the one, familiar, calming element of his life... his Evey. He'd spent many a night finding comfort in seeing her...even if she would never again see him. But watching her now...watching her throat constrict and her hands ball into fists, his heart ached. Oh Evey...what has happened? What's wrong? He kept his eyes on her as she ran. Past cars, past people, no heed being payed to them whatsoever. Her body was tiring. He could see it in the haunch of her body as she struggled to keep moving…but she slowed in the park.

Through the dark, he could see her clearly enough, and secluded himself in the shadow of a nearby tree trunk. His muscles twitched and tensed as Evey sank to the ground. He would not...could not intrude on her life...never...despite how painful it felt now. His fist slammed against the tree and then the fingers splayed, holding on while he stood there...feeling utterly helpless to what was happening to her. And then if the sight of it weren't enough, her body heaved and she let out the most horrendous sobs he'd ever heard, and his body shook in response. A hiss of breath sounded, giving life to the lifeless Guy Fawkes mask, and a silently uttered plea..."Evey...oh dear Evey...whatever it is... whatever brings you to your knees now, it's alright..."

A few moments passed, and as if in response, he watched as her body stilled, the strain of her features relaxed and his breath halted...waiting...

"That's right... that's right Evey..." as he watched her bring herself up to her feet…"Yes..." and something which can only be described as pride slide through him as her chin tilted up to the sky.

In her face, he saw the past...her own…and by reflection, his. Both reborn, him from fire...her from rain...and she was remembering. In front of him, she was taking back her strength and claiming once again the horribly beautiful gift he had given her, given in the most vile of ways...but it was hers..

"Oh V..." The single syllable of his name brought his attention back and he froze in place. She was thinking of him now? Was he the cause of this?...and when the rest of the words came, his heart sank, his eyes dropped to the ground and his only movement was a heave of his chest and his hand dropping away from the tree.

"That this... by separation, I may give you, that due which you alone deserve...and what you deserve... oh my Evey... is not a state such as this..."

He watched her turn and begin to walk away...and his voice…barely audible in the barest of a whisper, but needing to be voiced none the less..."I'm here Evey...although you do not see me... I am here..." and pulling his cloak around him, slipped once again behind her, intent on seeing her home.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**EV**

**Six Months Later...**

I awoke in the middle of the night. Not unusual these last few months, but I could be grateful this time that it wasn't from any sort of nightmares, and merely awoke to the sound of car horns on the street below. My eyes opening with a slight ache, and adjusting to the absence of light while trying to see through it. How long had I been asleep? I could still hear the occasional swish of tires, and the now more prominent talk from the sidewalks. So much had changed since November the 5th... people no longer sat back, allowing life to pass by them unnoticed... and it made me smile.

I turned my head to the side to glance at the window. Still raining I thought absently, sighing softly and sliding my legs from the bed to sit up on its edge. My toes touched the floor and I pulled them back with a jolt. "Bloody cold..." as I leaned, eyeing for my slippers and sliding my feet into them with a lazy push.

I stood then, making my way across the flat to the kitchen, encountering a slight grumble from my midsection as I opened up the fridge door. Coffee and brisket in the run of a day wasn't enough apparently... and I stared at the contents of my fridge. Cheese... a sack of bread... milk...and heaps upon heaps of take out containers that if I opened them, I would surely retch. I just shook my head and shut the door, and turned to the cupboard, instead opting for a tube of crackers. They would do well enough...

Turning against the counter, I tugged at the wrapper edges and my phone rang. So rare an occasion, it made me jump and I had to wait until I heard the second ring before I tossed the crackers to the kitchen table and went to find the phone. A toss of a couch cushion and I gave myself a mental "ah ha!" and brought the handset to my ear with a quick push of a button.

"Hello?" and the familiar voice of Chief Inspector Finch chimed through the line in response.

"Good evening Ms. Hammond. You sound a bit sleepy; I trust I didn't wake you?"

I smiles a little at that…

"Inspector, how often must I ask you to call me Evey...and no... I was in fact just grabbing a bite to eat…"

The Inspector, after finding me in the tunnels on the fifth, had become as close a friend as I could manage, and called occasionally to inquire about my health and well being.

"As often as I've told you to call me John I'd wager.."

I just gave a bit of a laugh..

"What can I do for you... John?"

"Well, seeing as you're eating, I won't keep you long, but I do have some news that I thought you'd want to hear right away."

I was moving back to the kitchen now, looking at that tube of crackers and grabbed a blanket from the back of a chair on the way. I brought myself down into a kitchen chair with a curious sound into the phone. "Oh?"

"Yes, well, I know you've been very interested in the Old Ben clean up..."

I froze. My hand clutching at the blanket that now rested on my knees. Both of us knew why I was interested... and out of pure reaction I nodded... having to remind myself a second later that I was on a phone.

"Have you found him...?" I had meant to keep as well away from that question as possible, but it came out so suddenly...unable to keep the crack from my voice from entering at the last second. The chief knew my feelings...and he didn't seem surprised at the question.

After parliament was destroyed, and the full weight of what had happened began to settle…I knew they would find him...or...what remained of him. No one knew he'd be there...only me...and the Inspector. England was still a buzz about code name V...many still talked about him as though he were still out there...still waiting in the shadows to harm those would would harm them... and he was the reason why these people stood up and stopped being afraid. Oh some still were... but then their mates would chime in with "V's out there...so what are you worried about chum?"

The inspector cleared his throat, bringing me back, as if I'd ever really left, to the conversation...

"We've excavated the upper debris, and we found the remains of the train...but there's been nothing else found Evey..."

I closed my eyes, hearing nothing past the word "train", and I suddenly felt like crying again...but Finch's voice intruded so the impulse couldn't finish itself..

"There's nothing there Evey... nothing." his voice sounded almost confused and I couldn't understand it...brow furrowing...

Nothing. What the hell did he mean nothing? "What do you mean Inspector?"

He cleared his voice again.. "In this situation…based on where he was placed in the train... well.. I expected to find evidence of him...well... blown to bits."

At my gasp he hurried, "I'm sorry for the visual, but there's nothing. Nothing to indicate that he was on that train, except a lot of burnt up roses..."

I couldn't talk for a moment... my head was spinning. Not on the train... the words repeating again and again in my head until eventually I just nodded to myself...my voice distant on the line...

"Thank you for calling Inspector... I...need some time..." and as he responded... I wasn't hearing him... I vaguely remember him telling me to call if I needed anything...my unresponsive nod, once again to a phone...and my thumb slid to the disconnect, ending the call.

I looked across my flat...to the wall on the other side...and then the phone dropped to the floor from my hand, my movements so rushed I almost forgot to put on my shoes.

"So help me..." said a voice in my head... yanking open the door while still trying to pull on my coat and walking out, letting it drift closed with a bit of a slam behind me. I walked as fast as I could, hailing the first cab I could find...and sat in the back seat, staring out the window...headed towards a place I had tried for months to forget…


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

**EV**

The tunnel was so very dark and the small flashlight I carried was doing nothing to really help me. I continually stumbled in my effort for footing. The cab driver when I left him seemed puzzled, dropping me off in the middle of the bridge, and asking me twice if he should wait for me to return. I had said no as politely as I could, assuring him that I was going to be fine, and now here I was...blinking in the dark... looking for the damn door...

At last I found it and with a full body push, the door slid open enough for me to wiggle inside. The squeeze wasn't pleasant and I almost fell over. I guess I'd never appreciated the ease at which V could move things...and moved into the inner door, turning the latch and pushing it open.

If I'd expected V to be standing in front of me as I opened that door... some ghost of months gone by...it wasn't there... but everything else was. The gallery looked the same... even in the dark… and it took me a moment to find the breaker panel on the wall, a slight wince as my hand hit the edge of the box.

The lights came on with a slight humming. I looked around and everything was right where it was supposed to be...all be it dusty from the passage of time and I gave myself a silent scolding... He would had hated to have seen his treasures abandoned this way...and I walked to the jukebox, sliding my fingers on the keys, touching where his fingers would have touched and I closed my eyes. I silently hoped that I would open my eyes and he'd be there... legs slightly spread...his hands…gloved and held together in front of him.

My body sagged at the thought...Oh how I wanted to see him again... to see that face...how desperate the feeling was that I found myself sinking down to the floor. Brought to earth by a memory…shattering sobs that I couldn't control. I shook from head to toe and I wept... for him for me...and they were angry tears for what had been stolen from both of us. I wept in confusion...from pain. And as my sobs got louder, I didn't care...I didn't care. Let the world have me...have this place... none of it mattered anymore.

The reality was...no one was looking for Evey Hammond anymore... princess of the revolution... partner in crime with the mysterious V...no more... the curtain was drawn and it was all over. The world struggled and survived above...a new world had begun on November the 5th...and was spreading like wild fire all over England...I was supposed to be a part of it... it was the world V had given us... given me... but why then was I here...desperate for the way things were...and then I screamed as someone grabbed hold of me, their hands like vice and before I could turn my head, my world went black.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

**EV**

The scream I let out was instinctual. When I'd felt the bag drop over my head I gave a start and my hands tried to grab it. Panic hit me like a fist and I felt my whole body shake, but just then I was grabbed. Arms yanked behind me at held at the elbows. I hissed in response, balling my hands into fists.

"I was wonderin wha' a pretty little thing like you, would be doin out so late in the evening lovey...now I sees why. Nice little hide-a-way you've got yerself ere..." The voice was thick and disgusting against the strangling fabric that now covered my head. I recognized it almost instantly as being that of the cab driver. Damn dirty sod...he'd followed me. What the bloody hell did he want?

"Let me go. I don't know what you want, but I haven't got anything!" Get your cruddy hands off of me would have been more like it.

"Oh I say you've got somethin... what with this place and all. See... I thought I reconized you in the back seat of me lift. You're Evey Hammond, that sweet thing from on the tele what with parliament being blown to bits and all. Recovered… R-e-s-c-u-e-d, as it were."

His hands bit into my arms making them ache, and I was being dragged backwards, I thought towards the door.

"Would this be "his" place then? The mysterious code name V...the fuckin bastard. Me and my mates are fuckin starvin because of 'im. Everything we fuckin wanted before the entire world blew sky high with ol' Ben."

Realizing he must have been a finger man, my body reacted and I kicked behind me, struggling against him.

"Whoa there... can't have you doin that now can we..." and I was jerked slightly.

A sharp pain burst from my side making my knees buckle as he punched me just below the ribs. The air exploded out of my lungs with it and I closed my eyes, clenching them shut over them as they watered.

"Ugghh..."

"That's right. Good girl." And my hands were then being bound behind me.

"See my brother had a run in with this V person. Said he was attacked in some ally while he was exercising his rights to some hot piece of tail. Nearly killed by 'im he was. Bludgeoned, with his own baton. When I saw him he made this big to do that it was you in the ally that night after he'on see ya on the news broadcast. Accomplice… That's the word. Criminal... That's all you are you little twat."

I was yanked upwards, his grip getting tighter and I winced in pain.

"So the way I figure... if this is his place...and you're Evey...he's got to be round bouts somewhere. And if I have ya, I can get him. So what's about ya tell me where he is eh? I promise ta let ya go sooner or later if you do. "His voice over those words was repellant...and I felt like I was going to be sick. He's dead you sod...but you'll never believe me.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

**V**

He felt inside of him and ache so resonant that he couldn't keep still. Today just seemed to be horrible... His heart kept pounding, unfamiliarly rapid and he couldn't fathom the cause. His mask, usually a familiar weight, seemed stifling, hot and heavy. He'd been reading when the unease had started and had gotten up to walk it off... he continually paced and paced around the tunnels these days, endlessly...but today it wasn't helping. And then he heard it…the scream...and he knew it as surely as he knew his own...a cold chill hitting his lungs instantly.

"Evey!," already moving as the cry sounded in his head, his feet thudding on the cement below them, as sure footed as ever with purpose, and although he hated the sound, he begged silently for her to keep screaming, the echoes of the tunnels could be confusing, and they went for miles. Mere moments passed as he rushed towards it...towards HER.. and then he found her, struggling in the arms of an attacker, her head covered by one of those awful black bags. Evey.

She continued to scream...her body writhing and struggling for an inch of freedom, never going silently into the dark...she wasn't that kind...uttering such profanities as he'd never heard her utter at any point during their time together…and initially...that would have made him pause...but now wasn't the time…and the choice...to act or not to...was made as his gloved fist made contact with the nose of the man holding her and she was shoved to the side, with a blood filled scream from the man... Why was she here...why had she come...

His movements were swift, deadly and silent for the most part. He watched as Evey fell against the wall and slid to the ground, shoved aside, and she struggled with the ties that bound her wrists, but she wasn't screaming anymore. A grunt from the man in front of him as he swung out in rage, screaming "There you are ya fucking bastard!", prompting V to twist, to absorb the impact of the worthless blow. His feet shifted and he moved, meeting the responsive backhand that came at him. Ducking, his fingers curled into a fist and he brought it up with the full force of his body and into the assailant midsection, the air from his lungs blown out in a breaking puff. The man groaned and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he fell unconscious. V grabbed him with his free hand and held him hanging for a moment as he turned his head.

In this moment, he looked at Evey...at the cloth that covered her face, at the rope that cut into her wrists and at the shivering her body was subject to now...and he saw red...the anger filling him was tangible and electric...and without a second glance, he grabbed the unconscious man by the scruff of the neck and quite literally threw him. V heard a bone chilling snap as the body hit the tracks and walked forward, gazing down for a moment before the mask tilted. He wasn't getting up...V knew that for certain...and as he surveyed the scene...the silence around him became deafening...making him turn.

Evey stayed where she was, so very still...and for a moment, he thought she might be injured… hurt… or worse until his glance to her chest revealed a steady rise and fall. What was he supposed to say...what...could...he say...and what was she thinking now. He wrestled with the thoughts plaguing him as he moved towards her, so tentative, so slow to approach her, but bringing his body down to a kneel in front of her, his arms came around, his hands immediately going to hers at her back and after a silent struggle of gloved fingers, released her hands from the rope. He touched her no more than that before moving back and slightly away.

He watched as she brought hands around and to each wrist...rubbing each ones companion and then up. Her fingers curled on the edge of the black bag, pulling it up and off of her face... but to his sheer amazement her eyes remained closed. She shook silently in front of him, her arms dropping to hug her middle, single tears starting to drop from beneath the lids. She was crying. Of all the things she could have done in this moment...which he had to admit, he'd envisioned many an outcome...the way she was crying now...had not been one of them.

He gazed at her silently and with a silent movement, he touched his gloved hands to her arms, intending to draw her close, to comfort...but that's when she started. She lashed out, and struck at him, her eyes now open and the edges of them hard, furious and pained with the glisten of tears still streaming down her face.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

**EV**

"You Bastard!!!!!"

I screamed with everything I could, my hands balling into fists and striking at him in every way I could, and he made no effort to stop them. I couldn't stop. Not at that moment... I just kept lashing out.

"How could you?!?!" I shouted.

From the second I heard the sounds...the fight going on in front of me behind the hood...I knew it was him. Despite my mind telling me otherwise, my heart just ached with the knowledge. It was him and all the hurt in me, all the pain and the torment I'd kept inside, welled up, and I couldn't stop the torrent from coming out. And so I flailed at him, my hands hurting from the effort, my arms burning...and the fresh tears stung my cheeks as they made maps of their own design down my face.

My throat was drying out, becoming raw with the force of my cry's and just then he grabbed me…taking my hands in his, as gently as I would allow and he pulled me close, his arms stronger than I could fight against.

"Shhhh..." came a hoarse and thick plea from the mask... "Please Evey... stop... stop fighting me...You're safe now..."

The sound of his words in my ears felt like a blanket covering a chill...muffling my thoughts until there was nothing to think about... nothing left to hear but him…and I just leaned…my breath heavy and uneven…my body shaking from cry's that still needed to be let go...and the tears kept coming...I couldn't stop them…they were like a wave. He kept holding me... and I pressed my cheek down, to a body I never thought I'd feel again...straining to hear a heart beat, I'd had memories of not being able to find... Oh god…it wouldn't stop...

"How could you..." I asked meekly...unable to make it anything but a whisper..."why..."

I don't know how long I'd already been there…cradled by him...how long I'd been crying...but the tears seemed to have gone dry...the waves receded and his arms relaxed…not letting me go... but measuring enough room to breathe. I heard a deep exhale of breath...and I looked up.

There was the mask, the sweep of the wig around it...and I looked to the man behind it even though I couldn't see him...in my heart and my head, the same words..."he's alive... he's here"...


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

**V**

He held his breath now... emotions constricting his voice and his thoughts. He swallowed, her pleading questions having jarred him deeply. She was angry...he knew it...had expected as much...but the emotion behind her words played tricks on him. His voice when it came was measured...words carefully chosen to try and avoid another fit of fists and shouts from her...

"Because I wished to give you a life...without me in it...I wished not to intrude on the new life you were to begin...the life you began November the 5th. That...up there...is your world Evey...not mine. I told you that before..."

However carefully chosen...those words made Evey start, and he saw it, from the crease of her brows to the flash in her eyes...

"What life?!?! I haven't had a life since... since... God! You told me you loved me! And then you were gone! You... DIED. I saw you...I held you... You were in my arms…and you DIED!! "

He watched as her voice pitched, and she had become hysterical...he couldn't think how best to handle the situation…so his hands left hers and lifted...the smooth leather of his gloves sliding along her cheeks to cup her face in them, most tenderly...he remembered doing this before...

"I thought it best Evey. For your sake...I didn't want you lingering in the dark. You'd been in the dark most of your life... "He paused...searching for words... "I meant every word I said to you that day... but the world to which you belonged was changing...I'd worked so hard to change it…for you...and.. I wasn't going to keep you from it..."

His hands hadn't left her, cradled her face in his hands while the Fawkes mask stared her down. She apparently couldn't help but cry again, but the cries were dry...too many tears already... too much emotion... and so very slowly, he dropped his hands and slid them below her, picking her up in his arms. Her weight was nothing as he moved...holding her in such a way as to keep her eyes shielded from what had happened behind them.

She didn't speak...she didn't fight...the only thing he noticed was the occasional grip of her hands to the fabric of his shirt...and as he went down the corridor, he caught himself glancing down to her again and again…feeling as he went, her body relax against his own.

He pushed in through the door of the old gallery...a glance around himself to note she hadn't been here in some time...and he pushed the door closed with his foot. Another glance to her, and he realized she was asleep…worn from all the chaos that had just befallen her.

With a flick to the alarm system he'd installed, he glanced to the door...then to the couch and making a decision to not let her wake without him there, he moved towards it, seating himself. He continued to hold her...in the circle of his arms…and waited. Waited for her to wake...and with her...whatever fury she needed to let loose.


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

**EV**

My dreams were chaotic... full of raining bullets, knives and buildings being blown up all around me. I could hear the screams from the houses, from the people on the streets, all of them closing in. In many ways it was similar to the dreams I had been having for months... one of several, all ending with the screams... ending in my own as I woke up...but this time.. I wasn't waking up...the sounds continued. Something though, from the shadows caught my attention. A simple whispered word.

"Evey..."

With that sound, the chaos seemed to dim...the voices, hushing, the screams fading to the background. The clamor, the cries...faded out.

"Evey..."

It came again...this time louder...more insistent...and I searched, looking around me, and spinning in spot to catch where it came from. All I saw were crumbled buildings…blank expressions of compliance to faces that had no faces...their faces disappearing until I could only see black. Moving closer, I stared, and as I realized what I was seeing...what they were... I screamed...

"No!!! No more black bags!! Take them off!! No!!" reaching to rip at them, to pull them from their heads, but under them were a second black bag...a third...a forth... and I stumbled back, the world starting to spin again but something caught me. A pair of hands, spinning me and as my body jolted, as I felt my world cave from under me, I looked up, and into a face I knew so well...

"Evey!" and it was over...

What happened next at first still feels like a dream...at the sudden shock of awakening, I felt jolted...but the world seemed to steady and still...and then the voice was there again…so familiar...clearer, and so much more gentle...

"Evey...wake up Evey...you were dreaming..."

I felt my eyes flutter, felt the vestiges of the waking dream subside, losing their hold and I opened my eyes, my body flexing in the same moment, stretching away the stiffness of sleep.

As my eyes adjusted and lifted, again, like my dream...there was that face...grinning as it always would and it all came back... He was dead... no... He was here...this was him...this was no dream...and then I remembered... and I was then very angry. That must have shown on my face because then he spoke.

"I know you're angry with me Evey... I...know you're upset...and given all that has transpired, I believe you have every reason, but if you would permit me, I would like to have you hear me out...and then..." his head tilted and his shoulders rose and fell slightly, "If you still feel the need...you may respond as you see fit."

The way his voice sounded...something in its tone, the way his head had tilted... made me pause and nod, and as the seconds passed I realized just where I was. A slight shift of his thighs under me and I looked down. He moved in response to it, and lifted me, the movement seeming hurried as if to avoid some statement of offense, but as he turned with me, the shock of being lifted probably evident on my face, he placed me down, almost hesitantly, his hands lingering for a fraction of a second more than necessary before sliding away and back to his sides, stepping back and drawing them up together in front of him. His demeanor was almost hesitant.

"Well go on then..." my impatience getting the best of me, my voice snapped.

The mask lifted, and the hands in front of him released their hold on the other. It took him a moment but his voice, when it came, was desperately slow.

"I felt you deserved so much more than what I had to offer you Evey. Loving you...as great of a triumph in this life as it is for me... is not enough to feed the hungry heart."

I must have looked confused, because I was...very, but he continued and I sunk back against the couch back.

"When I began all of my plans, my vendetta...it was to make those responsible for what had been done to me...what had been done to the world...pay... but then I met you and as our time together mounted, I saw my reasons changing...I wanted my vengeance still…yes... too high powered an emotion doesn't simply vanish... but more so...I wanted..." the fall of his voice, a slight crack brought my eyes to the shadowed ones of the mask, searching the black...and he continued, "I wanted to change this world for you Evey…and I vowed I would, and by your grace...by your choice.. You took in your hands, your own dream...taking what I could give you...Don't you see... I stayed away...because I wanted the world to hold joy for you...the real world outside this place..."

His hands swept wide, encompassing the whole of the shadow gallery.

"I have always been watching over you...Evey...always. I allowed myself that...to keep you safe...but never came close enough, because I thought it wouldn't be right."

I shook my head slowly, my mind pushing back against his words and eventually my hands came up, covering my mouth as another sob threatened to wrench itself from me, dropping my eyes down, unable to stop my shoulders from shaking, the force of the emotions I had concerning this man... this "man"…were emotions I had never been able to fight against...couldn't fight against.

I pushed back the desire to weep again...to weep for the times I had felt my heart breaking...for the loneliness that had crept over me all to often in the months gone by, and for the man in front of me…who even now, stood apart from me, distanced and stoic, who felt that life without him was for the best. His shoulders betrayed some emotion held in check, the muscles of his arms slightly moving when I brought my eyes back up, sniffing and drawing the back of my hand to my nose, attempting to breath. He looked to be under some strain, yet he still held back.

My voice was unsteady but desperate…

"Did you ever think of what it was doing to me? If you've been watching over me...couldn't you see what was happening to me? How much pain I was in?"

The chin of the mask dropped and again came that shrug... "I believed your grief would pass given time...and you would move on." his voice changed a bit "without..."

"Without you..." I snapped. "At least say it since you felt so strongly about it." My eyes dropping to the floor and I brought my arms around my middle. "How many times I went over that night in my head...what happened in that tunnel...how desperate I was...how many nightmares I've had of you going down those tracks, wondering what I could have done or said to make you stay.."

His response was immediate it just about cut me off.

"You could have done nothing Evey. You couldn't have stopped me from going...no more than you could have stopped the bullets. I had it planned... I had it in my mind that I was going to die that day...and why I didn't...why I am alive today...still remains..."

I stared at him...unbelieving of the words I was hearing.

"How could you say that you loved me...and then just...stay away? How could you..." my voice thick with the emotions I couldn't keep back, cracking the words as they came out...and I had to stop, the words failing. Stop Evey… get a hold of your self. And still he stood there, watching me. I could feel his eyes...and after a few minutes, I couldn't stand it anymore and got up.

"I have to go... I can't stay here right now..." and paused...remembering...then swallowing, noticing his hand hovered in the air towards me... "I have to think..." and I turned, not looking back at him and walked out, my hand wiping away another torrent of tears that threatened to break free.


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

**V**

He was helpless at that moment...he watched her go and his body shook. The hand that had lifted away from him to her balled into a fist and he brought his chin down, turning away from the door, resisting the urge to bolt out the door after her. She knows...

His head turned and he looked to the door again... she knew he was alive...and she was leaving... and he could do nothing to stop her. What could he say...what could he do? She needs her space... time... slowly unclenching his hands. His body turned, eyes dropping to the spot where she had just been and the demons inside himself began to taunt..."She won't come back you know... you've lost her"..."She'll choose to forget now... and how will you live after that.." "She doesn't want you... has never wanted you... how could she..." and he ground out a groan, his shoulders hunching and his eyes behind the mask closing as he ground out his only retort.

"I will continue to protect her...I will keep her safe, and no regret will linger if I may but do that. That will be my purpose..." That had been his mantra, his prayer all this time. But.

The mask suddenly snapped up, and he moved, cursing that he had brought her here and not to his new home, for he would have to retrieve his cloak and daggers before he could follow. She'd been attacked. He didn't know why. He didn't evening know who the disgusting man was. What if someone else was waiting for her outside the tunnel? Damn. Damn. Damn! He shook off the thought...he must hurry... "Let her be safe..." and ran as fast as his legs could take him.

He breathed an enormous sigh of relief when he found her, walking slowly down the street amid the towering rows of houses and continued behind her, keeping to the shadows that lined her passage home. For a moment, at the turn of her head, he thought she had sensed him..."Impossible..." having made no sounds to give him self away. But still...she searched the shadows with her eyes...and after a moment, shrugged and continued on, her hands sliding into her pockets. Reaching for her pepper spray no doubt...

The journey home for her was short as he set his eyes on the floor to her flat. She ascended the stair and paused again, her keys drawn from her coat pocket, a slight clink as she let them drop into the palm of her hand, sorting key from key to find the right one. Her eyes searched the street side and her eyelids dipped over her eyes before she looked down, turning and inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. Withdrawing her key he watched as she stepped inside and let the heavy door slam behind her.

She was safe...for tonight she was safe and he breathed a silent sigh of relief. Why wasn't he moving though...why was he still following? Without thinking, he darted into the alleyway to the side of her building, tilting the mask upwards as her flat window lit up, illuminating the shadows. With a quick motion he grabbed at the edge of her fire escape, his feet quickly carrying him from ground level, up...and hidden in the shadows to the side of her window, perched in the corner of her wrought iron balcony, he gazed through the glass.. "Just for a short while" he told himself..."Just a short while..."


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

**EV**

I dropped my keys on the way in the door, to the side table, wincing at the sound as they hit the surface, and shook my head. "Don't do that next time..." setting the reminder to myself as I walked across the room to the kitchen, my hand going out to flick on the overhead light, the buzz of the florescent light sounding as I dropped into a chair at my table, bending my arms and cupping my chin between my hands.

"How could he think that life without him... how he could think that this would be better..." my voice as I thought aloud, somewhat hollow and very much confused. I sighed and turned my head, looking out the window, my throat thick as exhaustion and confusion rattled through me. My voice lowered like one telling a secret.. "Don't you know that I loved you too..." my eyes momentarily searching the darkness of the night beyond the window pane before I looked down.

I sat there...for a long moment…and then lifted myself up to move across the floor to the couch, my feet slightly chilled and picking up the blanket from the back of the couch I moved around it, sinking to it's cushions and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders. A touch of my hand to the remote and I turned on the tele, hopes that its voices would drown out the ones in my own head. My eyes blankly watching a while before I slowly drifted off to sleep...


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

**EV**

I woke up on the couch, slightly chilled; the blanket had fallen off my legs in the night to the floor and lay there in a heap. Tilting my head back, a slight stretch of my neck, I looked over my shoulder at the clock on the wall. 5am... the break of a brand new day...if early, and I certainly thought so. I closed my eyes and stretched again, getting rid of the kinks that my body suffered while sleeping... a curl of my toes as a small yawn tumbled from my lips as I shifted to sit, and brought myself up off the couch. Walking around it, I made the familiar trek to my kitchen, mechanically going about the business of making coffee. As always I opened the wrong cupboard and corrected, finding the coffee among the coffee cups. Telling myself that that's where it should be. Shouldn't it?

As I set the coffee maker, I let myself lean against the countertop, feeling un-rested, and a sense of unease at my dreams from the night before. Nightmares more like I admitted silently as I turned my head to look out the window. Mrs. Peterson across the way would be up soon, and any manner of Hawaiian shirts, belonging to Mr. Peterson was my only guess, would be strung up on the dry line just outside her window. The thought of that made me smile slightly, my hands curling a bit to touch fingertips to palms, but before the thought could finish itself, I saw him. The Fawksian mask was stark against the black of his clothing, and in the light of day, entirely out of place.

I started, shocked, my hand going to my collarbone. I expected to see him move...but he didn't. I looked directly at him for a fraction of a moment and he still didn't move. My heart skipped a beat and I practically launched myself at the window, images of the underground making my heart skip a beat, my hands slipping on the metal latches and making me curse. Hauling it open, my voice came out louder and more shrill than planned, akin to panic.

"V! Oh God...V!?"

His body jolted, sitting up, his hands reflexively dropping to the hilts of his knives and slipping one half way from it's holder before his body stilled, the mask turning up to me and I got the distinct association of this moment to a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. My sudden alarm quickly turned negative and I reached out, grabbing the fabric of his cloak and pulled, my voice hushed and strained.

"Get in here before someone sees you!"

With no hesitation, just a simple glance over his shoulder, he drew off his hat and quickly ducked in through the window. I almost fell as I stumbled backwards to get out of his way, my hand still clutched to the fabric of his cloak. I let it go as soon as the thought came to me, and he moved away from the window to the wall adjacent to it and leaned.

I exhaled slowly, glancing now through the open window across the way and then across the street wondering if anyone had seen...and shaking my head moved to the window again, closing it with a push from a hand at the top and pulled the curtains closed, moving silently to the other windows to do the same. I couldn't help but glance at him, drawing my eyes away just as quick as thoughts filtered through my head. "Why the hell had he been out there?" "Sleeping?" and of all things…"He's in my flat..." Something about that realization hit me just then, and I looked at him, my hands clutching the curtains in front of me, not willing to let them go because at the very least, they were something to hold onto.

"What were you doing out there V...?" my voice came out quietly, low, and deliberate, but with hesitation.

Eyes that had been watching me from behind the mask, I could tell, seemed to shift, and drop, the chin dipping down to follow suit. Was he nervous...embarrassed? I saw his hands move, one curling and uncurling, the other gripping the brim of his hand with such conviction the material indented under the pressure, and for a moment, I didn't think he was going to answer, dropping my hands from the curtains in something that must have looked like exasperation, crossing them over my middle. That seemed to prompt him...

"I merely..." he stopped, a shift in his stance, bringing his hands together...he was visibly taking control over himself and he lifted his chin finally bringing his hidden eyes back up to mine." I took it upon myself to see you home last evening. I had not intended on falling asleep but I thought it best to watch over you for a while...the attack in the tunnels...left me concerned..." and he trailed off momentarily, coming back with a defensive quip. "It was as much a shock to myself as it was to you I'm sure to find me out there.." His hands spread apart, imploringly.

I stood there for a minute and after I had run it through once more, I nodded, letting my arms drop from their defensive and down to my sides. He had been worried about me...and when that simple thought settled, it made me smile.

"Well... then welcome...I guess." Sweeping a hand out to encompass the room, although I was sure he would be leaving again any second.

"I'm sorry Evey. I understand that this is a disturbance you don't need, and I had no intention of causing you such an inconvenience."

The tone in his voice made my eyebrows knit, and I brought my eyes to the mask and stared. The tension in that air at that moment made me believe I could touch it and waiting a second, I just shook my head.

"You're here now...no help.." my voice sounding sad to my own ears...and I suddenly couldn't finish and I quickly glanced to the couch and then back. "Will you stay a while then?"

His body stood a little straighter and after a moments pause, his chin dipped down, the shoulders dipped in a quarter bow. How very V. "If you wish…"

My hand rose to my upper arm, sweeping down and I just nodded, but kept my eyes down. My head hurt already as it suffered against the assault of emotions that I had to deal with and I crossed past him to the kitchen, deciding to remove myself from the room.

Walking back over to the counter and opening the cupboard, I pulled down a coffee mug and silently poured myself a cup of coffee. Behind me, I heard him move and it made me feel better to know that I wouldn't be facing the wall of V when I turned around. When I did though, I watched as V gently placed his hat in the middle of my make shift coffee table, and proceeded towards the pictures that adorned the top of the tele. His presence seemed to weigh more in that moment than ever and I just looked at him...letting my eyes fall over the sweep of his cape...the angle of his shoulders...the strands of the wig...taking him in.

He was here... he was "really" here with me. No more walking dreams, no more ghosts. He was alive and the sudden rush that it sent through me almost brought me to my knees with tears, my hand going to the counter to brace myself. I must have made a sound because he turned then, the mask slightly tilted, watching me with silent question.

I shook my head in response and pushed away from the counter, bringing the coffee cup to my mouth to distract from the situation. He seemed to accept that and turned again as I moved around the couch, taking a seat on the corner cushion. I tilted my head, trying to guess which photograph he was looking at and letting the coffee slip down my throat, I spoke softly.

"My parents..." shifting to bring my feet up to the couch edge "Finch found a number of pictures in the confiscation department...restricted until after the 5th." my shoulders rolled in a slight shrug "he "reclaimed" them...and gave them to me about a month ago..."

"The face of immortality is in our children" he quoted, his voice gentle." You have her eyes Evey...but you look very much like your father."

It was such a simple statement. No condolences. No apologies...just a simple statement, connecting me in the now to my parents in the past. It made me drop my chin and smile, and I sat there, staring into my cup and caressing the ceramic with my fingertips. I lifted my head as I heard him move, crossing in front of the tele to the opposite side of the couch. His hands came up, the leather covered fingers sliding under the flap of his tunic and loosing the cord that held his cape and slipped it off, draping it over one arm. With a sweeping movement, he laid it over the crest of the couch back. He paused, a curl to his fingers before sliding them behind his back.

"May I join you?" he asked. And responded to the wave of my hand and the nod, seating him self, in my view, as far into that corner as he could get, and it made me laugh, but with no real humor. I looked down to my cup again and shook my head, bringing the cup up and drinking deeply. To say I love you and mean it... did he regret? I was startled out of the thought by his voice.

"Evey..."

I cut the drink in half, making a quick swallow and turned my head to gaze at him, a tilt of my head and a slight lift of my eyebrows. I didn't expect..

"Will you..." again he halted and to hear him, so unsure. V always had something to say but at the moment, he was fumbling.

"What is it V?" leaning a little.

"Will you...in time of course...ever forgive me? for all the pain I've caused you.." his hands sought each others companion and pressed to his knee, bracing himself. "I did what I thought was right…I believed it and I made the choice, but..." He just stopped and the hands on his knees balled into light fists, and he exhaled, waiting for whatever response I would lash his way, for what else was he to think would happen. All the pain...I made an inward silent laugh...but certainly there was no calm in it... he didn't know the half of it.

I looked at him then...my expression. I like to think it softened because my heart certainly had...and then I looked down, my throat working to get past the lump that was already forming. So much emotion for so many months... so much anger and loss... how do you sum that up...the reality...you don't...

"I was so angry V." I shook my head "I was so angry and in so much pain...and it never went away. There were days where I felt like dying because I figured…why not... lets make the outside match the inside. And then there was guilt...that I should have done something... that I should have stopped you...that if I just...said something else..." My thoughts were erratic "And the train...and guilt over the shadow gallery. It was yours and you gave it to me... but the one time I went back... my whole world crumbled and I couldn't breathe. I hadn't been back again until last night."

I took a breath and brought my eyes back up, my eyes begging him silently to just stay quiet... to let me get out what I hadn't been able to in the months since November 5th...

"Everything hurt...so...much! And finding out you were alive...all this time..."

I tried to smile but failed and took another direction to the conversation...putting a cork in the emotions that I just knew would sweep me up again.

"I was bloody angry V...I'm still angry... but I'm not so angry anymore. It still hurts...and to be honest I think the thought of... ", trailing off... I couldn't admit that right now...not right now... "Right now I just feel grateful that you're alive. I can't express everything I feel at the moment... I can put it into words... I just can't... but I understand V, I may even forgive you...even though I don't agree...or even like the fact that you felt you needed to stay away from me. I'm just glad you're not just a part of my dreams anymore..."


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13**

**V**

Months.

Months he'd stayed away. And at the current moment, he could scarcely remember why. It was unfathomable. Truly. How could he have denied himself her voice...her gestures...her every nuance from the way her fingers traced the mugs edge to the way her eyes darted from place to place as she tried to steady herself as she spoke. But he had. The taunting voice in his head attempted to shout but he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.

Chastising himself briefly for the simple foolishness of allowing himself to have fallen asleep outside...waking up to broad daylight had been nothing less than shocking... but then he was also instantly unable to deny that he was glad he had. Silently he thanked the gods, who up till now he'd seen as only adversaries. Fates were to be reined and challenged. His blunder on the balcony was converted into a blessing. Today he and the gods were allies...today the war between them was on hold and he wouldn't take this peace from them for granted.

His eyes never left her. His breath held and let out in only small inaudible puffs as she continued, pouring out her heart. He breathed in each word, a slight rush of disappointment when she fell to silence, and his body responded in kind, shifting slightly. It took him a moment to find his voice and he prayed it wouldn't falter. Eyes dropping finally to his lap, watching his hands as he dropped them to his knees.

"For months I've fought the urge to tell you Evey. Everyday I saw you… everything in me told me that I could stop it. Your pain. Mine. But I couldn't believe it. I believed…I'm not sure if I don't still believe...that what I am…what I became for my vendetta...that it does not somehow taint you..."

Helplessly his hands curled and uncurled on his thighs as if struggling with his own presence He watched as Evey's lips attempted to move and he shook his head, opening a hand, stopping her silently.

"What was done was necessary. What I did was change the world. Is the sacrifice of ones humanity worth what came from it? To gain something of value, something must be sacrificed."

His mask tilted just slightly, attempting to open his throat and allow himself to swallow.

"At first...I believed my sacrifice was my identity...my memories...my very skin. That alone gave me the right to do what I did and I spent 20 years alone planning...but then I found you..."

In that moment he found the courage to look up, his eyes gazing at her so intensely, willing her to feel the strength of his eyes.

"I felt joy Evey...in you. I felt as though all those years had brought me to that moment and then it hit me...and it seemed as though the loss of myself wasn't enough...that the gods needed more from me. Surely they would take you just as they'd taken everything else. And I accepted it. I looked at the time I had with you as a gift... something beautiful that I could leave this world knowing. And I fully expected to leave."

"But V..." His voice intruded into the flow of truth he'd decided to let loose and he dropped his eyes.

"I don't know why I'm alive Evey." He had to stop her from saying something that could alter the path he'd chosen the minute he decided to speak. And it succeeded. She seemed to recoil slightly, sitting back into her corner, so he continued. "I don't know why I woke up on that train... I don't know why my body fought so hard to survive when the soul was already gone. But it did… I did...And after... I was faced with a future I didn't intend to have...one I don't believe I deserve..."

That made her start and he saw it as she sat up a little straighter, her slender knuckles going white under the strain she caused them as she gripped the cup in her lap.

"You saved thousands of people V! You saved _me_...everyone from such horrible fates...So why wouldn't you deserve to see what you've accomplished. Why don't you deserve to feel some happiness after so many years of nothing??? The gods' aren't that cruel...I know they're not..."

She spoke those final words in a hush, similar to that of a prayer and he lifted his head, unable to resist the urge to reach out, his hand hesitant, and touch the curl of hair that dangled at her temple with the edge of a leather clad finger. A slight drop and his hand opened, splaying to cup her cheek. He was certain he was trembling slightly, but if he was she gave no sign and only served to make his heart ache as she tilted her head into the touch. Evey... her name momentarily feeling like music to his heart strings.


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14**

**EV**

Nothing could have prepared me to hear all that. To hear the pain in what he was saying and to understand what he was telling me. The feel the touch of his hand on my cheek...such a satisfying sensation, I couldn't help but sink against it. I lifted my hand away from the mug in my lap and pressed it to the soft warmth of the leather, not letting him take his hand away if he tried, but feeling the muscles in his forearm relax, I knew he wouldn't.

How could he think that he didn't deserve happiness...? After all he'd done for the world...even if the deeds were terrible...he'd saved us...saved the world from itself. Surely if anyone deserved love and happiness it was him...

I looked up, still holding his hand, but with the distance between us I had to let it drop from my cheek to rest on the couch cushions. The skin on my hand hurt from how hard I gripped, not letting go.

"I know what you've been through...not all of it...but some...enough I think to know that the only thing you ever did was to be different than everyone else…somehow." I swallowed as I pushed; having taken the only approach I knew how to take. He sat up a little straighter and I knew he was slightly shocked.

"Why would the gods punish you for that? Why would you have survived all of it...to be here right now... the world completely changed because of what you fought to do??"

My eyes darted to the holes of the mask, searching for man behind the black mesh shields...and when he didn't say anything, remained silent, I put as much conviction into my next words as I possibly could.

"You know... maybe the gods didn't punish you. Maybe they helped you. Maybe they saved you because they knew you could do what needed to be done to make things change? In your books...in Greek mythology the gods used man to fight their battles... giving them strength above that of normal humans so that they could accomplish great things. Maybe that's what they were doing..."

I paused, trying to think of what to say..

"Maybe... by letting you live..."

I couldn't continue for the moment and I brought my chin down, closing my eyes. V had the sense to stay quiet I suppose and I silently admitted that I'd had almost as much as I could take in the last twenty-four hours...and trying to defend the value of someone's life, to the person themselves might be impossible...but opening my eyes and looking at him I bit my lower lip and shook my head...

"Or maybe you're alive now because I needed you..." The words were almost imploring..."Maybe you're alive because I didn't want you to die. I said that and I meant it..."


	15. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER 15**

**V**

In the moments that ticked by, he felt elation… he felt joy…he felt breathless…perhaps even happy. But then he felt doubt…he felt denial…and in a single moment; all of it turned to self loathing, and it sickened him.

The abruptness of how he pulled his hand out from under hers must have come as a shock. For a second it surprised even himself. His body automatically retreated and he got up abruptly, backing away from the couch.

"You have no concept of what it is you claim to need…"

The venom in his voice felt acidic but he couldn't silence the voice that wanted to crush the possibility of anything else. His emotions were a complicated mess as loathing and hatred and love and ache all swirled inside of him. He saw her body tense, saw the defense coming as her lips parted just a little and she moved to lean forwards, so he shut it down, his hand lifting, fingers curling to a fist and pressing against his chest.

"You have ideas, and memories and hopes of what I am Evey. You see what you want. You are not seeing me. Not really. Not for what is or what is real. In truth, you know nothing of me…and yet you claim to need me. Claim to need the very same monster you once claimed to hate...and I am that same creature Evey…..I have not changed."

When he finished, he expected something, but not silence. Evey just sat there at the end of the couch, her legs drawn up in front of her and he found he couldn't bare the sight. Her posture made him believe that he was right. The silence confirming what he had just said…

He turned abruptly, and reached to retrieve his cloak, ungracefully throwing it over his shoulders and looping the cord. He moved briskly, and by the edge of the coffee table, bent to retrieve his hat… but at that same moment he heard her. Her voice was quiet, and very low.

"I know you love Shakespeare. I know your favorite play is Macbeth. I know you have trouble sleeping so you pace at nights until you get tired. I know that when you do sleep, you have nightmares almost constantly…" She lifted her head then, and the shine in her eyes made his breath stop. With each statement her voice grew more confident, more sure. "I know your favorite film is The Count of Monte Cristo. I know you like to hum when you're cooking because you enjoy it so much. I know you take forever in the shower and you do so with the lights off..." She paused and uncurled, stretching her hand out with the mug and putting it down on the table in front of her, rising up at the same time, and crossing the room as she spoke.

"I know you fight against a suit of armor for practice and for fun. I know you're adept at sword fighting, dagger throwing and all that other fighting that you do… I know you're not afraid of mace…"

She stopped at the book shelf, and her fingers floated across the backs of them, lightly caressing until she apparently found the one she wanted but purposefully didn't pull it from the shelf but turned to look directly at him. He lifted, holding it hat in front of him, unable to speak. She curled her finger over the spine of the book and pulled it out and held it close to her chest, her voice emphatic but lowered again.

"I know how you suffered at Lark Hill…" and those words made him freeze, made him actually take notice of the book she held. The bright red cover of Delia's diary and he took the two steps to the side of the couch and braced a hand against its back in reflex. She kept talking, and he couldn't help but hear her.

"And I know that it wasn't you in that cell hurting me. It wasn't you who tortured me."

Now that made him look up, and his response was immediate, grit out and hard.

"I assure you it was…" but he was cut off. More to the point silenced by her next words.

"It was them." The statement was matter of fact and spoken angrily.

She approached the coffee table and the diary was suddenly slammed onto it, thrown from her hand. She was angry. It was in the way her body tensed, and how her voice turned to something so similar to his… "Every punch…every kick… every act... It may not all be in that diary… but I know what happened to you. I knew the moment I read it. I knew that everything that was done to me…it was done to you first. The day I left… I didn't hear you… I…" the first break in her passionate statement… "I didn't want to hear you then." And she went quiet… she crossed her arms over her middle and looked down, closing her eyes. He watched her take a breath.

"I said you were a monster. At the time I really believed what I was saying… I believed you were the most horrible person alive."

He swallowed and his voice came out in a little above a whisper…. "People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do."

And she nodded. "When I left… All that time I spent alone, I was always thinking about you. At least once a day I'd go over what happened in my head and I couldn't understand. In that cell I kept thinking somehow that you would come and save me..."

She finally looked up…

"In the end though, it didn't matter if I understood or not because I saw exactly how I'd changed. I noticed how confident I was and how the world looked so different every time I looked at it. Every choice I made I saw you and that's what made me come back to see you. I decided to believe in you...and I came back, thinking I had all the time in the world…."

She took the first step towards him and he almost backed away, pleading softly.

"Evey…"

He looked at her and took in every second of her determination… watched as she closed the gap between them and stood directly in front of him, slender fingers brushing the metal curve of his mask and cupped the cheek, he felt the pressure of her hand and tilted his head to meet it. She'd won whatever battle he had tried to start and he knew it, feeling silent relief.

"I know what I need to know V… and I know you love me."

Whatever resolve he'd had, whatever motive to try and keep her at a distance, it was slipping away with every second. One final push… before he couldn't fight anymore, simply because he didn't want to. What he wanted was to abandon himself...abandon all thought and reason, and just hold her close and never let go.

"You could have so much more without me in your life Evey. You could fall in love… have a family… live the life I dreamed you would… you can still have that."

She closed the distance, her arms slid across his shoulders, the sensation making him sag and he dropped his head down, the metal forehead pressed against the column of her neck. He felt the movement of her head shaking, and closed his eyes.

"I'm already in love… and everything I care to have is right here…" Her voice lowered to a hush... "Please V… please don't ask me to live without you again. I just can't…"

The hat in his hand dropped to the floor unheeded and his arms finally circled around her, crushing her to him without a word. His leather clad fingers splayed across her back as he held her as close as he possibly could as if afraid she'd vanish like smoke. His embrace was all encompassing, and passionate, the metal lips of the fawksian mask resting at her pulse and in what could only be considered a strangled…

"Speak low… if you speak love."

If his arms could hold her any tighter, they tried, and his voice did just as Shakespeare suggested, barely audible, barely a whisper.

"I do love you Evey… I truly do."

And he felt her arms cling tighter, felt her breath push through the strands of the wig to flutter against the side of his fortunate skin, and tears fell silently behind the mask.


	16. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER 16**

**EV**

He was warm. So very warm.

Every ounce of tension, every ounce of fear and pain I was feeling, fell from me in a wave at the feel of him in my arms….safe… whole…and alive. All I was left with was relief. I could feel his body, so stiff in the beginning, so unwilling, ease and relax to mine, giving me a sensation of pure elation and peace. I couldn't help but tighten my hold, the muscles in my arms straining to wrap around the large width of his shoulders, futilely trying to cover him somehow with myself. Aside from that I didn't move at all.

I listened to his breathing, closed my eyes to it and listened as it occasionally hitched. I doubted that I would ever know for sure, but I thought he might be crying, silently behind that fawkesian visage, but I decided to stay quiet...

As the moments went by I felt subtle tremors run through his shoulders and arms, the occasional tension after which his arms tightened just a little more, tightening me to him until there was no space and no separation left between us. I ran my hand across the line of his shoulders and pressed my temple to the side of his head, my lips I was sure, pressed directly against his ear under the wig.

"Shhh"

The sound from me must have brought him back for a moment, because with a slight shift of his body I felt the moment break and I felt that we were separate again, felt him lift, righting himself and pulling away. I gave a final press of my hands to his back in an attempt to keep him there but it was no use. There was finality in how he cleared his throat, unwinding his arms from around my back.

"I… " he faltered and I brought my eyes up to the black slits, keeping my hands to the front of his vest as his hands moved to grip my upper arms, lightly, tentatively. "I have to go…" There was a note of pleading in his voice which I couldn't quite place, and his chin dipped down and I felt a sudden pang of hurt.

My heart felt like it would drop through my body to my feet and alarm bells sounded inside my head. My fingers curled on his doublet, gripping slightly before I forced myself to relax uncurling them until they laid flat again.

"Why?"

"… Please understand…" I heard him swallow, a measured exhale of breath behind the mask, but he didn't move. He held himself in place, but it was entirely clear at that moment it was the last place he wanted to be and for whatever reason, he wanted my consent to leave. Disheartened I nodded and dropped my hands from his chest and brought them around myself, hugging my middle.

"Alright…" and I couldn't help but take my eyes off of him and look away as I waited for the sudden bolt… the mad dash to the door or window in order to escape, but it never came. After a moment, he still hadn't moved, the gloved fingers only tightening their grip slightly on my upper arms, the pressure making me look back into the face of the mask.

In the moments that followed the masked face descended, startling me as the slight chill of the metal cheek brushed against mine. I felt a gloved hand leave my arm and it came up to cup my cheek in the supple cradle of leather. His voice when it came was barely a whisper and it's thickness, raw and full expressing and encompassing so much more than the words themselves, the weight of them halting my breath.

"Thank you Evey…" another pause and I felt a rush of warm air across my ear and neck from the slit of the masks mouth, "Thank you." I felt his hands slowly slide from my arm and cheek, a few strands of hair from the wig brushed my jaw as he moved away. Moving through the room the only sounds were the slide of his hat from the coffee table, and the sweep of his cloak as he pulled it from its place on the couch. I opened my eyes finally to the sound of the window sliding on its rails and watched as he paused in the frame to look back at me. A simple glance but it made me smile just a little in return. And then he was gone out the window, the sound of the pipe at the side of my flat rattling as he scaled to the roof and nothing more.

I laughed just then, just a bit, perhaps because if I didn't laugh, I would cry and that just wouldn't do. So I unwound my arms from myself, moving to the window to close it and approaching the window, gazed outside. I wasn't looking for anything, but bright colors caught my eyes and sure enough, across the way, Hawaiian shirts were waving in the light breeze of the morning from the clothes wire. At the sight of them I reached out a hand for a kitchen chair, my weight dropping down into it unceremoniously and I laughed. With tears streaming down my cheeks, I laughed until I couldn't laugh anymore.


	17. Chapter 17

**CHAPTER 17**

**V**

Outside he could breathe. Outside his body didn't feel like it was burning from the inside out!

As he moved fluidly across the roofs of London houses, weaving around chimneys and antenna's, through the fall of his feet on the shingles, the trailing billow of his cloak and enduring the heat of the sun seeping into every pore of his body through the heavy black clothes, his mind continued to hum. A battle had erupted and now raged inside his chest and he felt completely powerless to halt its crash. It was suffocating him. His body shook and he desperately wanted to regain control.

Twenty years.

Twenty years he'd survived alone. Twenty years of planning, building up the remains of his soul, patching together what bits of sanity he had left in pursuit of his vendetta. Not once had he contemplated _his_future. Envisioned and planned the future of England, planned every detail, measured every ounce of fertilizer. All this time he had been perfecting his skills, honing him self for one, single, last day. But lady fate had seen it prudent to change that meticulously engineered plan hadn't she.

"Evey…oh god Evey…." His heart trembled and he had to shut his eyes only briefly, unable to escape the sensation of her, of her arms holding him, the sound of her lips hushing him. His eyes snapped open, head shaking quickly once to the side and his teeth clamping together in his mouth… "Not now…" Onwards he ran, the sweep of his cloak flipping behind him until he saw ahead of him the gates to London Hyde Park and within its confines, one entrance back to his home.

His eyes scanned the ground a dozen or so feet below him, still early enough that only the most proactive of London's occupants were even in sight. He paused at the edge of the roof on which he stood, surveyed the area and swept down off the side of the building, using the drainage pipe to the back to aid him in his drop to the ground. Dashing across the paved empty street he moved out of any possible sight behind a large tree. Four bushes he'd planted almost 18 years ago now concealed the entrance to the manhole leading to the tube tunnel below. A few moments to slide the steel disc to the side and he sunk into the dark hole, dragging the disc back into place once inside, and was instantly plunged into complete darkness.

A heavy sigh of relief sounded off the empty walls as his boots hit the cement below him. Turning away from the wrought iron service ladder he moved down the tunnel, his memory the only guide in the dark and it never failed him. At the gallery, he splayed his hand on the heavy door and pushed, opening it and stepping inside. It closed with a thud behind him. Home. It was here he could fall apart if need be, although he sincerely doubted that would be the case.

"I simply need to think….that's all", he said to himself.

Walking into the room, he removed his hat and cloak, mindlessly draping the latter across a nearby chair, and dropping the hat onto its seat. He moved through the gallery automatically, doffing his gloves as he walked, finally holding them clutched in the fist of his right hand. Eventually he found himself in the back room, the couch directly in front of him and the tele in front of it. He focused unblinking at the darkened television screen near the wall, bracing his hands on the back of the couch and leaning against it. He focused on his breath, sucking it in and out of his lungs rhythmically and after a few moments, he looked down.

The red and white tissue, no trace of skin, usually, over so long a time gone unnoticed, seemed to blaze against the dark color of the couch back and he grimaced. He let go of the gloves and lifting his hand, gazing at it while he turned it front to back, splaying his fingers wide. He swallowed and closed his hand into a fist, anger rising in his chest, his teeth clenching in response.

"Why did you keep me here?? WHY!!!??? What purpose could you have!?"

The explosive shout of words was directed high, not to Evey….no, but to Lady Fate who seemed unsatisfied and wanted him to suffer just a little more, but his demand was met with silence. Dropping his head forward and his breath catching in his throat, a sob agonizingly released itself as he turned away from the couch, sinking to the floor behind it. His shoulders shook with the force of his tears and he held his head in his hands, digging his fingers into the hair of the wig.

As he wrestled with his emotions, as if in answer to his mangled plea, he heard the clunk and grind of the tube train. It was distant. A tiny thud, like a butterfly's wing just as it flaps. That fateful eve of November the fifth. The memory of it flooded back in a singular rush. Its size a mere pinprick opened and expanded until its force and its magnitude overwhelmed his senses. He was dying all again.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18 **

_**V - A passage in time….**_

"_I don't want you to die!"_

Her voice was as clear as crystal…her face, once again hovering over him. Her eyes had held so much strength…so much determination…and also what he now recognized as hope…and loss.

Her voice had sounded so beautiful to him. And joy. Yes that's what it was. His own. Simple and pure. And it had surrounded him like a blanket. Such a declaration for him…from _her_… and he carried it with him until the very last moment until his world went black. He had thought that was the end. Heavy darkness engulfed him and that was to be his ending. Exit stage left. But then he was conscious. His body was being jostled as the train started away from the main platform. The continuous shaking from side to side left him feeling slightly sick. In his ears was a low hum of the detonators that surrounded him. His nostrils flared at the overwhelming scent of roses, Valerie's roses…but why were they here…why… and the thought faded from him.

His mind was muddled, as if waking from a month long slumber without much success. From somewhere around him an electronic bell, sounding as if the wiring were slightly off, dinged and he rolled his head to the side, struggling to open his eyes. This was easier said then done as they seemed caked shut. He swallowed, and after a moment successfully managed to open one eye but remained still working on the other.

V watched as a platform zoomed past the rectangular window of the tube train. Instantly he became alert, his body reflexively trying to jump into action. He managed to sit up, half curled to the side, but finding it excruciatingly painful at the completion of the movement, let out a groan and lost the tentative balance he had on the makeshift bed of roses, and toppled to the floor of the car. He let out an agonized cry, his hand slamming to the floor, immediately trying to push himself back up.

If anything the fall brought him to his senses, all be them painfully overloaded senses. He turned his head again, assessing himself and his situation and let out another groan as he moved a bit too fast.

"Get a hold on yourself V…." Scolding himself and gritting his teeth, he pushed up, his free hand reaching out and grabbing the side of the bed, which he vaguely recognized as fertilizer packages, and pulled himself to his feet. Doing well for a moment, it was short lived as the train jostled and sent him stumbling backwards, forcefully slamming into the glass door behind him.

"Uuuuggh…quite enough of that…"

He blinked, and looked to the back of the train; after heaving a few, short painful breaths he pushed behind him away from the door and staggered in the direction of the back. He almost toppled as the train rocked once more, but grabbed at the square packages of fertilizer blocking the door and pushed them out of the way. There was another ding from the electronic message system.

"One more station…."

Pushing the grey panel to the back compartment aside with a grunt and stumbling forward he grabbed at the exit door, yanking it open as hard as he could, causing himself yet another deep set groan, the pain pitching him forwards. He stumbled, and then fell quite abruptly from the back of the train. He heard and felt the audible crunch of his body as he hit the tracks and white lights flashed under his eyelids as the pain of it slashed throughout his entire body, the scream let from him barely reaching his ears before it and he fell silent. V lay unconscious on the tracks as the train sped off on its fateful path down the tracks.


	19. Chapter 19

**CHAPTER 19**

**V**

"_V…?… V!!"_

He was waking up again, and this time, it _really_ hurt. A chill cascaded down his body and through his skin and he couldn't help the sound of pain that pushed through his lips as his body shook in response. His breath was sucked in quickly, and held for as long as he could before releasing it…very…very slowly. He pushed his eyes open but remained as still as possible, his mind trying to catch up to the rest of him.

Another tentative breath and he hissed, mentally calculating the damage.

"That would indeed be a broken rib… possibly two. Truly…what folly befalls impetuous action…?"

Closing his eyes once again, and with a grit of teeth, he started to move, dragging his hand up from his side, letting it glide over the metal of the tracks under him. At a good angle, he curled his fingers, gripping the steel and pushed. The motion not as graceful as he would have hoped, he succeeded however in turning onto his side, half onto his back before his hand dragged away from the steel and went to his chest with another hiss through his teeth. Another shiver spontaneously slid through his torso.

"And that would be the on-press of a fever…unless this tunnel has recently been converted to meat cooler…"

He pressed the back of his head to the ground, pushed his chin upwards and closed his eyes, his breath coming in slight gasps behind the damage to his ribs. He'd landed straight onto one of the tracks, and steel against bone wasn't a fight that was usually won. Obviously.

He allowed himself a few more moments before lifting his head. The glance down the track was brief before the muscles of his neck and shoulders tightened and the press of his hand to his chest pressed just a little harder. His body curled and as quickly as he could manage he brought himself up to a sitting position. The compressing of his chest was almost too much as his free hand shot out to the ground beside him to keep him steady while he let out a sharp, yet bitten back groan.

He sat quite still as the pain subsided, the only movement that of his legs, shifting them to better, more comfortable angles. A brief nod to himself that, yes… his legs were working…and no…surprisingly that didn't hurt to do. What a relief. His head cocked to the side as he listened at first to his breathing, then more. He heard the sound of car tires, thudding over a nearby manhole cover. Ahead of him down the tunnel, through a small ventilation grate, he heard voices… people out on the street. Footsteps heard behind that. He lifted his head, looking around himself in the tunnel. Good. He knew where he was.

His movements were slow and labored, but after a few minutes, he was on his feet with an arm braced against the tube tunnel ledge, breathing hard. His body hurt. The efforts taken to get to his feet had reopened a number of the bullet wounds. He could feel the blood starting to re-soak his shirt arms and his legs already felt weaker. The front of his left leg burned hot and he watched, chest heaving, as blood soaked the black fabric with increasing speed. He looked to the ceiling, grit his teeth together and started walking…limping would be more precise… back down the tunnel.

It took him just over half the hour to walk there. As it was, he leaned against the cool brick wall to the back of the building and closed his eyes. He couldn't breathe. The mask was stifling but it wasn't safe to take it off. Not here. He turned his head, his left hand opening and closing distractedly as he listened to two women chat while having a social cigarette at the side door. He cringed at the smell of the smoke as it wafted through the air, making his nostrils flare. He was grateful when the hinges of the door creaked, the push bar clicking as both women moved, opening the door to walk inside. As the door opened, and the sheet of metal blocked him from view, he held his breath and dashed ungracefully down the length of the wall towards it, his hand just barely sliding into the loop of the doors handle. His thumb pressed the latch, keeping it from locking, and followed the door as it swung shut. He listened to the sound of thudding feet on the stairs just inside and as soon as he couldn't hear them any longer, he pulled the door open and moved inside.

Saint Mary's… The name of the hospital was spray stenciled onto every surface. It was on the walls; on delivery crates. It was even painted on the door that now swung silently shut behind him. The air around him reeked of anesthetic and iodine, of bleach and saline. He briefly shook his head in an attempt to avoid it somehow, however unsuccessful. He moved past the stairs into the back room, pressing close to the walls. At the first door he came to on his left, he pushed the door open and moved inside, silently shutting it behind him. A whisp of air through the slit of the mask, and he practically sagged against the door frame. He scanned the room…he was so tired…but instantly pushed off the door to the phone at the far side of the desk. A leather clad finger trailed the directory list on the phone, a red streak of blood smeared accidentally over two of the keys.

"Ah…"

Quickly scanning the desk in front of him, he noted the name on the plate at the front of the desk and simultaneously keyed the extension he wanted, snapping up the receiver and lifting it to ear level. One ring…a second…a third.

"Central Switchboard, I'm Meghan, how can I help you?"

"William Hunt for Dr. Daniel Lloyd, if you please Meghan."

"Certainly Sir. One moment please."

He heard the tonal clicks of the line being switched, even the cough of a woman in the background.

"Connecting your call now Sir. It's ringing. Have a pleasant day."

"Thank you Meghan."

The phone rang. Again he counted, more to keep him alert than anything. One ring… a second;

"Lloyd here. How can I help you?"

"Dr Lloyd. Hunt here. There's a delivery down here for you in D section. Just arrived. It's got an urgent tag attached. I thought you'd want to know right away Sir. "

"Oh. Yes of course. I'll come down immediately."

"Very good, Doctor."

"Cheers."

He shifted the receiver in his hand, and rolled it to his fingers and down back onto its cradle. So tired… He felt the weight of his body again and braced a hand on the desk. His world swam in small dizzy circles. He looked down at the floor, eyes closing to slits behind the eye shields of his mask as he watched a drop of blood drop from the tip of a leather clad finger to the floor where another few drops had already landed.

His head shot up in a snap at the knock at the door. He tried to straighten but his energy was almost gone. Adrenaline, such a wonderful thing when it's pumping in steady streams through ones veins. It's when it runs out that's the problem. Too long of a pause.

"William?" came the good Doctors voice though the door.

"Come in Doctor."

When the door opened, the light entered the room in a silver burst, illuminating one corner of the room and then gradually slid diagonally across the breadth of the room, illuminating V in all of his mangled glory. The good Doctors eyes widened and his mouth opened and closed once, his stance exclaiming his shock before words could even come out.

"Hello again Daniel." He was too weak and courtesy would have to wait. "I'm afraid I'm in need of your help…"

His stance must have faltered because the door was shut closed rather abruptly, and Daniel Lloyd strode around the desk just as V's eyes rolled up. He could feel is body drop from under him, all his energy now fully spent on getting here, to him. Jolted as an arm went around his back and a hand gripped his upper arm. His eyes fluttered open again and he turned his head towards the support, mindlessly following the push and guidance to the chair behind him.

"My god… V… What happened to you??"

The laugh that came through the slit of the mask was amused.

"Well it all started with bullets you see…" trailing off. At which point, he let out a breath and closed his eyes.


End file.
